Calumet
- Usually termed the "peace pipe" by the white man, the calumet or
Grand Pipe was one of the most profoundly sacred objects to the Indian
from the West Coast to the Rockies. It was important in all religious,
war, and peace ceremonies. It was a war pipe as well as a peace pipe.

The calumet was smoked by representatives
of tribes to seal a peace pact and to assure a friendship which already
existed. It was used to bring about good weather and ideal conditions
for journeys and for the hunt. It also was smoked to bring rain.
Its use banished evil and brought about good. it assured victory
and the death of enemies who were named during a chant while it was smoked.
A dance was sometimes held in honor of the calumet.

When the early French explorers came into
the Mississippi Valley, they were received by the Indians with the "Dance
of the Calumet." Those presented with a calumet were able to approach
all other Indians as friends, simply by holding the pipe out in front of
them. The flag which General John Charles Fremont, "The Pathfinder,"
used when he crossed the continent first showed a bundle of arrows.
This meant war to the Indians, and he soon changed the symbol to that of
a calumet crossed with arrows in the talons of an eagle, and was then received
as a friend.

The calumet was at first simply a bunch
of sacred reeds or a shaft. (The white man's word comes from the
French term, which was derived from the Latin calamus, meaning tube
or reed.) later the Indians' bundle of reeds was combined with an
altar, or pipe bowl, in burning tobacco tot eh gods. Thus when the
calumet was smoked, friendship was sanctioned by the gods.

The calumet shaft usually was highly decorated
with feathers, skins, and heads of birds, hair, quillwork, or beadwork.
When was was planned, feathers on the shaft were painted red. The
pipe bowl was often highly carved.

Stone pipes were used by many Indians.
They made journeys to the Pipestone Quarry in southwest Minnesota to obtain
a red claystone. This was first noted by the American traveler George
Catlin, and after threat the stone bore the name of "catlinite" in honor
of him. The Comanche, Ute, Bannock, and Shoshoni used a rather soft
stone of greenish color. The shinbones of the deer and antelope were
also used, and some Plains tribes employed the thick neck muscles of the
buffalo and bull elk, twisted into shape and dried.

The white man manufactured a pipe-tomahawk
for trade with the Indians. It had a steel head and hollow hammer.